current edu major, Need Input, especially inner city educators

[croangel]

Currently I am an education major at Penn State, and need more input on my research paper...if you could please answer some of these questions, it would be extremely helpful- thanks!
1. Do you teach in an inner city school?

2. What are major struggles you must face on a day to day basis?

3. What are problems students must face in the school environment?

4. What solutions may there be?

5. Why have you chosen the area in which you work now?(suburban, urban..)

6. What are some of the rewards of teaching in the inner city?

7. Any additional comments on inner city vs suburban education...

1. Do you teach in an inner city school? Taught in a suburban school which turned inner city over 16 years.

2. What are major struggles you must face on a day to day basis? APATHY is the biggest foe of eduction. Even though the kids had few real homes, many had all the creature comforts they needed (since many did not have to pay for food/housing they had "things, clothes, hair, nails, etc).

3. What are problems students must face in the school environment? Peer pressure and bullies.

4. What solutions may there be? You can't give in to their apathy, or give in either.

5. Why have you chosen the area in which you work now?(suburban, urban..)
The administration of the urban school went soft, and the education of the students went under. After a few months of NO control, the students had ALL the control. Read all about it, Charleston County School District, The News and Courier, Charleston.net

6. What are some of the rewards of teaching in the inner city? You have to take your reward from being needed, and doing a good job. "No good deed ever goes unpunished". You eventually get used up and move on. But someone has to do it.

7. Any additional comments on inner city vs suburban education... The inner city keeps moving on. The school my son attends in the suburb,"a good school", noted for being a good school. Is now experiencing "urban encroachment" as cheaper housing is being built, and the area ages.

Yes. the problem is apathy. Apathetic parents become poor and produce apathetic children. If they weren't apathetic they wouldn't litter all over the place and would expect more out of themselves. Cheating is not a problem at my school because students don't care enough to cheat. (I caught my best student cheating the other day because she actually cares.)

Pot is a problem. It is a cause and a result of apathy.

There is no shortage of money. Teachers at my school are paid well and we mostly have what we need. (Computers in every classroom is not necessary. Maybe one or two.)

The kids are smart. They are victims of themselves. For every student making a C in my class, I have a student who can barely speak English who does a better job at everything.

(BTW I am not a Republican!)

I teach in southern Dallas because that is where I'm needed. I have a stressful job because the students can be a handful. The principals are overworked dealing with the students. If I went to the suburbs, the students would be better, but the principals would be on my case to get my standardized test passing rates up from 96 to 99 percent. So either way I'm stressed by the students or by pushy principals. I'm happy where I am.

I hate to encourage an inner-city stereotype, but I asked my students if they have any teachers who just don't ever teach them anything. They all said yeah. I said not your math or your English teachers, right. They said no, not them.

Yes. the problem is apathy. Apathetic parents become poor and produce apathetic children. If they weren't apathetic they wouldn't litter all over the place and would expect more out of themselves. Cheating is not a problem at my school because students don't care enough to cheat. (I caught my best student cheating the other day because she actually cares.)

Pot is a problem. It is a cause and a result of apathy.

There is no shortage of money. Teachers at my school are paid well and we mostly have what we need. (Computers in every classroom is not necessary. Maybe one or two.)

The kids are smart. They are victims of themselves. For every student making a C in my class, I have a student who can barely speak English who does a better job at everything.

(BTW I am not a Republican!)

I teach in southern Dallas because that is where I'm needed. I have a stressful job because the students can be a handful. The principals are overworked dealing with the students. If I went to the suburbs, the students would be better, but the principals would be on my case to get my standardized test passing rates up from 96 to 99 percent. So either way I'm stressed by the students or by pushy principals. I'm happy where I am.

I hate to encourage an inner-city stereotype, but I asked my students if they have any teachers who just don't ever teach them anything. They all said yeah. I said not your math or your English teachers, right. They said no, not them. I do know that the coaches don't teach anything while in the classroom.

The only solution is some children need to be left behind. Stop making these kids come to school. Because truancy (our biggest problem) causes such a high percentage of our students to fail, it makes it look like a huge number of our students are failing. The ones who come to school are not, mostly. So principals tell us to raise our passing rates to counter the truancy. (my words)

So let me try to break a few things down:
1. Myth: inner-city teachers don't care: no but at my school they are burnt out because they are past retirement age. They care, but the fire is gone.

2. Teachers are underpaid? Not me. I even have a laptop and digital projector.

3. Stress? I get stress from students where I work, not the principals. They are hands off. In the suburbs, they'd be all over me.

4. Students uncontrollable? No. They are more vulgar. They will rise to their expectations just like any other kids.

5. Academic standards low? No. The standards are the same, but the kids are different in different neighborhoods. We teach the exact same stuff as mandated by the state.

6. Are standardized tests good for the inner city? Yes. They keep teachers on their toes and constantly remind them what they are working for.

7. good for the suburbs? No. Principals get too obsessed with scores and take away recesses and field trips and movies and drive teachers to Prozac.

8. Inner city parents supportive? yes. They will whip their butts when they get home sometimes. And they won't sue you like they do in the suburbs.

9. How do teachers cope with stress? In the burbs, they take medication; In the ghetto, they take Friday off (30 out of 80 was absent this Friday).